GC
German critics
Reacted with hostility due to the film's deviations from its source texts and Gösta Ekman's performance.
God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war over Earth.
Directed byF. W. Murnau
Written byHans Kyser, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe
Budget2 million (equivalent to €2 million in DE)
Critical Consensus
8.1
IMDb
7.9
TMDB
Initially a financial and critical flop, primarily due to German critics' hostility towards its source deviations and Gösta Ekman's performance. In later years, the film achieved widespread acclaim, regarded as a canonical German expressionist work with high critical approval.
The Cast
Trivia
Murnau's Faust was the most technically elaborate and expensive production undertaken by Ufa until it was surpassed by Metropolis the following year.
Filming took six months, at a cost of 2 million, with only half of the budget being recovered at the box office.
A short sequence of the contract being written on parchment in fire took an entire day to film, demonstrating the extensive technical effort involved.
A controversy arose over the film's intertitles, as a Nobel laureate was hired to rewrite them for 40,000, but his version was ultimately rejected in favor of the original writer's.
The 'Bald Mountain' scene from Faust served as the direct inspiration for the 'Night on Bald Mountain' sequence in Walt Disney's 1940 animated film Fantasia.
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Critics
RT
Rotten Tomatoes
Reported an approval rating of 91% with an average score of 8.3/10, based on 34 reviews, indicating significant later critical acclaim.
TT
The New York Times
A 2006 review called it 'one of the most astonishing visual experiences the silent cinema has to offer'.
SA
Shinji Aoyama
The Japanese film director listed Faust as one of the ten greatest films of all time, appreciating its non-realism and 'real' fascination.
Audience
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